Brooder house



May 22. 1928. 1,670,932

| H. DICKELMAN BROODER HOUSE Filed Jan. 5, 1925 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 May 1,670,932

L. H. DICKELMAN BROODER HOUS E Filed Jan. 5, 1925 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 May 22, 1928. 1,670,932

H. DICKELMAN BROODER HOUSE Filed Jan. 5, 1925 3 SheetsSheet 3 Patented May 22, 1928 UNITED STATES 1,670,932 PATENT OFFICE.

LIZZIE H. DICKELMAN, OF FOREST, OHIO.

BBOOIDER HOUSE.

Application filed January 1985. Serial No. 498.

My invention relates to a breeder house for baby chicks, that is, a building into which an attendant may enter to care for the chicks therein, as distin uished from a 6 device into which the atten ant merely extends his hand or arm, and having heating means for, maintaining a temperature in a portion of the buildin high enough for the brooding of young chicks. Such a building 10 accommodates a large number of chicks at once, and is suitable for raising them on a large scale.

The object of my invention is to overcome the difliculty caused by the piling up of the chicks against the walls of the brooder house, especially in the corners thereof, and at the 'same time to provide a suflicient brooding area properly heated and efiiciently ventilated. I accomplish my objects by constructing the walls of the building of sheet metal, the side walls being preferably circular, or at least without sharp angles, and being formed with horizontally running corrugations, and by protecting the chicks from direct drafts while providing abundant ventilating openings at a plane above the space occupied by them.

In brooder houses of the character described, intended for raising chicks on a very 30 large scale, dependence is placed largely upon the instinctive movement of the chicks towards the space which is of suitable brooding temperature. A central heater is used which heats a space immediately adjacent thereto to a higher temperature than is comfortable for the chicks, and the temperature diminishes outwardly from this central heater. However, with walls of wood or similar material which is a poor conductor of heat, and, as usually used, a poor reflector of heat, the interior of the walls becomes heated so that the temperature of the air immediately adjacent the walls is seldom much cooler than that at a point somewhat nearer the heater, and frequently this air immediately adjacent the wall is warmer than at an intermediate point between the wall and the heater. Furthermore, a wall which is composed of a poor conductor of heat acts as a warming blanket for the side of a chick that nestles against it. This condition is most pronounced in the corners or angles where two walls meet. The result is that the chicks are frequently lured towards the wall and pile up against the wall, especially in corners or angles, in search of 'brooder houses rom the chicks pili reat loss results in such up in this manner against the walls, especially in corners, so that they are trampled and smothered to death.

In an otherwise similar brooder house having walls of metal or similar material which is a good conductor of heat, and, as ordinarily used, a good reflector of heat, the temperature is not higher immediately adjacent the Wall than at any. point between the wall and the heater, and is ordinarily cooler immediately adjacent the wall than at any other point in the brooder house. Furthermore, metal and such material which is a good conductor of heat, whenever it is at a temperature below the temperature of the body of the chick, chills and repels a chick that comes in contact therewith, instead of acting as a comforting blanket. These conditions are accentuated in any corners or sharp angles, so that chicks do not pile up in corners of metal brooder houses; ut for purposes of eflicienc and economy it is undesirable to have we is constructed with such angles. The temperature conditions are such in a brooder house of the kind described having metal walls that the chick is'not confused and led toward the wall in search of warmth, and any chick which does stray against the wall does not find it a comforting blanket, but on the contrary is chilled and repelled therefrom. In this way the metal walls efl'ectively prevent injurious piling up of the chicks thereagainst.

While it is desirable and, in fact necessary for the healthy growth of chicks, that they shall be supplied with an abundance of fresh air, it is undesirable to have currents of cold air strike them. By providing ventilating openings at a hei ht well above the space occupied by the chicks, I avoid to a. large extent direct drafts upon the chicks, while at the same time allowing suflicient ventilation.

The corrugations mentioned are useful for rigidity and also'appear to be desirable for their effect upon the heating and ventilating qualities of the brooder.

There has been trouble caused by the piling up of chicks at points between the wall and the hover in brooder houses. The a parent cause for this is irre ularity in dra ts and temperatures along the floor, driving or drawing the chicks to certain points between the hover and wall instead of towards warmth, and

the hover. These irregularities are greatly reduced by the present invention, so that troublesome piling up of the chicks between the wall and hover is eliminated.

The invention may be contained in structures that may be varied in their details. To illustrate a practical application of the invention I have selected a cylindrical house containing the invention as an example and shall describe it hereinafter. The structure selected is shown in the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 illustrates in part a. sideview of the convertible brooder house, and in part a sectional view of the house. 1 Figure 2 illustrates a section of a part of the floor construction. Fig. 3 illustrates a concrete floor construction and means for anchoring the brooder house to the floor. Fig. 4 illustrates a sectional view of a seam between two adjoining parts of the roof. Fig. 5 is, in the main, a top view of the house, a part being shown as a section taken on the line 55 indicated in Fig. 1 and another part showing the construction of the window frames at a point below the roof. Fig. 6 is an enlarged view of the window frame and illustrates the means whereby the window frames may be readily removed, Fig. 7 illustrates a screened opening in the sides of the brooder house, and a shutter for closing the opening. Fig. 8 is a view of a section taken on the plane of the line 8-8 indicated in Fig. 7 Fig. 9 is a view of a section taken on the plane of the line 99 indicated in Fig. 7.

The structure embodying my invention is preferably formed with curved walls. It may be made polygonal with angles larger than 90 or oblong in form. It is preferably made substantially cylindrical in form for convenience of erection. Also by making the structure cylindrical in form and corrugatinp; the metal wall plates, the walls are great y strengthened and can be made selfsustainin Thus the body of the wall may be readi y erected by securing together curved, corrugated sheets of metal; or plain metal wall plates can be used, strengthening same by means of a frame made from angle iron, hoops, bands or other suitable material. The roof moreover is formed by a plurality of sheet metal sections, having interlocking edges that form water shedding seams.

he supporting base of the house may be a wooden platform or may he formed of concrete. In Fig. 1 the house 1 is shown as being supported on skids 2. Two-byfours 3 or other suitable sizes extend across the skids 2 and a wooden flooring 4 is nailed to the scantling 3. A suitable surfacing material 5 may be used for covering the floor, such as a tar composition or it may be formed of a cementitious'stone composition or sheet metal may be used as may be desired. A circular L iron 6 is secured to the ends of the scantling 3. The flooring 4 is fitted within the area of the circular L iron which extends around the lower edge of the building. The sheet metal wall 7 is secured to the L iron 6 b screws that may extend through openings ormed in the L iron and into the flooring 4 or may be nailed direct to the flooring. The edge portion of the wall may be flattened so as to embrace and make contact with the inwardly extending flange of the L iron 6.

The roof 8 is formed of a plurality of sectors 9 that are secured at their upper ends to a collar 10 and have interlocking edges 11 as shown more particularly in Fig. 4. The parts of the roof are secured to the wall 7 by clips or brackets 12. A dampered ventilator 13 may be supported on the collar 10 and is provided with a hood 14 that, is supported by strips 15 so as to form an opening 16 around the outer edge portion of the hood 14. A second smaller hood 1? may be supported on the hood 14 by means of the sleeve 18 and so as to form the opening 19 at the outer edge portion of the smaller hood 17.

The house may also be provided with a suitable door 20 hingedly supported in a suitable frame 21, and with a window 22, which may be closed by means of a shutter 23.

The'structure is provided with a brooder house stove 26 of the type well known. It has a pipe 27 that fits within the sleeve 18 and communicates with the space between the upper hood l7 and has its outlet through the opening 19. The pipe 27 being much smaller than the shell of the ventilator 13 prevents sweating and also produces ventilation by increasing the temperature of the air confined within the shell of the ventilator 13. The top of the stove 26 is covered with a conical hood 28 to deflect and distribute the heat. To prevent the influx of cold air from striking the chicks when the door 20 is open, a smaller door 29 is hingedly connected to the frame 21, preferably by the use of spring hinges so as to maintain the smaller inner door closed as much as possible. The inner door 29 preferably has a height substantially the same or slightly higher than the edge of the hood 28. Also to regulate the movement of air within the structure the window 22 may be provided with a. frame 30 that may be secured in position by inturned flanged portions 31 and to which may be secured, by tacking, a strip of muslin 32 to cover the window 22. that is the opening formed by the window. In case ofrain and to avoid wetting of the muslin strip 32, the window may be provided with a shutter 33 having openings 34 that may he formed by depressing from the nu of which the shutter is formed, a plural of tongues 35 that extend diagonally O1 Ill) ward and downward when the window shutter is closed. Also to regulate the ventilation the collar 10 may be provided with a damper 36 having openings 37 of the type commonly used in connection with slidable dampers.

In order that the chicks may have lenty of light, I have provided a series of rames located in such manner as to obtain the maximum amount of sunlight, and extending substantially greater than a quarter of the distance around the cylindrical structure. The windows together with the door cover nearly 180 of the cylindrical brooder house so that nearly the maximum amount of sunlight is thus obtainable. The frames 38 are formed of angle irons having one side, such as the side 39, much wider than the other side, namely the side 40. The sheet metal strips or parts that form the wall 7 are secured to the sides 39 of each frame 38 and on the inside of the frame by means of the bolts 41. The windows 42 may be of any type of construction but preferably they are of the type having iron frames common- 1y used in actory buildings, and sometimes called steel sash windows. Such windows are Zprovided with frames 43 of angle iron or s, the glass 44 being fitted within the parts of each frame by any of the well known means commonly used in connection with such windows. The frame 43 fits within each frame 38 and may be secured in position by means of a 'metal button 45 that is located on a bolt 46, and is clamped by means of a nut 47. Thus the button 45 may be used to clamp the frame 43 to the frame 38. A pluralit of buttons 45 may be used and ma be distributed as may be desired, prefera ly along the sides of the frame 43, to secure it in as many places as may be desired. Thus the frame 43 may be readily inserted in the frame 38 and the buttons 45 may be turned in position to engage the frame 43 and the nuts 47 may be threaded on the bolts 46 to securely clamp the frames 43 in position. Also, the windows may be readily removed by merely unscrewing the nuts 47 which will allow the buttons 45 to drop and release the frames 43, whereupon the frames 43 may be withdrawn from the structure.

The window may be provided with a ventilator part 48 which may be pivotally supported and tilted when open or it may be slidably supported and shifted either vertically or laterally to open. The lower part of the window frame may beclosed by a anel 49 which is provided with an opening 50 that may be covered by means of a slide 51. The slide 51 may be shifted to the right or left to close or open the opening 50 topermit the chicks to pass out or into the brooder house on warm days.

In the construction provided with the concrete base for floorin such as the base 65, Fi 3 a circular ang e iron 66 may be embe ded, or angular strips may be embedded, in the concrete 65, and the wall 7, along its lower edge, may be secured to the angle iron by means of the bolts 67.

Also if desired wooden frames may be used in place of the window frames 43. A1- so the construction may be further varied in its details, the construction shown being merely illustrative of an embodiment of the invention.

It will be seen that a brooder house constructed as described herein has walls consisting of metal except for windows; that it confronts a chick, attempting to wander from the proper broodin zone, with a chilling, uninsulated wall '0 a good heat-conducting material, and that it affords good ventilation without direct drafts.

Also the window space, particularly as measured around the wall, is such as to roduce the maximum accumulation of met from the sun and is of suflicient length as measured around the wall to obtain all of the beneficial rays of light produced in the early sprin Because of the cylindrical or polygonal orm of the house the windows are necessarily located at an angle to each other which presents, .during the major ortion of the da a light receiving area ocated substantially at right angles to the rays of light from the sun which is very beneficial. Where the house is oblong and has curved cndwalls and plane side walls the same beneficial results are also obtained from the sun.

I have also provided, by my invention, ideal ventilation, since the screen opening 22 is located substantially opposite to the openings that are formed by the hinged portions '48 of the window and well above the chicks. This provides for the circulation of the air in the top portion of the house and prevents any draft that might be caused by striking the chicks. In case the door 20 is opened the inner hinged door 29 which forms a continuation of the surface of the sheet metal wall along the lower edge prevents the draft from striking the chicks.

In the claims, where reference is made to a large number of chicks, the intention is to define over a comparatively small number such as is customarily housed in a hover and attended by reachin into the hover from the sides or from above; and by the term brooder house it is intended to refer to a building intended to house a large number of chicks, and to allow the entrance of an attendantto care for them. \Vhere freedom of'obstruction between 'the heater and the wall is specified, it is intended to brin out that the chicks are free to move outward from the heater until they come in actual contact with the described wall. By a good conductor of heat, as the term is used in the claims, is meant a conductor of the order of metal, or one which is sufficiently good that it continues to chill a contacting body for a material length of time more rapidly than would unconfined air of the same temperature contacting the same body. It will be apparent that if the conductor does not chill the contacting body of the chickas rapidly as the adjacent air in the open space, the chick is tempted to crowd against the wall, whereas if the wall conducts heat away from the contacting body of the chick more rapidly than air of substantially the same temperatu re, then the chick is repelled away from the wall.

It will be understood that the foregoing specification is largely by way of example, and intended to des'cri'be one specific embodiment of my invention and some obvious variations therefrom, but that other changes may be made within the scope of the appended claims and'achieve at least some of the described objects of this invention in accordance with the principles hereinbcfore set forth.

In the claims where the walls are specified as being substantially of uninsulated sheet metal, the expression is not intended to exclude frame work or other incidental por tions of material other than sheet metal, but the word substantially is intended to require-that the wall is so nearly all of sheet metal as to effect an even temperature and ventilation such as avoids the piling up of chicks within the brooding space.

The word uninsulated in the claims is not intended to exclude all use of material that is not as good a conductor of heat as the metal, but, in the claims specifying the hunting of the movement of the chicks by such metal, it is intended to exclude the use of insulating material to such an extent as to prevent the metal from repelling chicks by its chilling effect, and in other claims it is intended to exclude the use of insulation to such an extent as to nullify the effect of the metal in equalizing the tempera ture and ventilation.

I claim:

1. The method of brooding a large number of chicks in a single group, which consists in maintaining at proper brooding temperatnrc a space large enough to accommodate said large numbcr of chicks, and limiting the straying of chicks from said space by a wall of insulated metal maintained cool enough to repel chicks from contact therewith.

2. The method of brooding a large munber of chicks in a single group in an inclosed space when the outside temperature is below that suitable for raising young chicks, which consists in heating an area of said inclosed space too hot for comfort of the chicks, maintaining around said area an annular area at a proper brooding temperature, and maintaining outside this second area an area of temperature too cold for the chicks, the temperature decreasing continuously from the outer edge of the second said area to the outer edge of the inclosed space, said continuous decrease in temperature being maintained with the aid of a wall of uninsulated metal surrounding said outside area.

3. The method of ventilating a space for the occupancy of animals, which consists in producing a current of comparatively warm air ascending from a portion of said space, producing a current of comparatively cold air descending at a place spaced from said as ending current, and, before the descending current reaches the space occupied by the animals, deflecting and diiiusing it over the major portion of the distance between it and the ascending current by passing it across grooves in a surface along the side thereof farther from said ascending current.

4. A broodcr house for brooding a large number of chicks, comprising a heating means and a wall spaced from said means, the space between said wall and means being unobstructed and at least that portion of the wall with which the chicks can come in contact being of uninsnlated material which is a good conductor of heat.

5. A brooder house for brooding a large number of chicks, comprising a heating means and a wall spaced from said means, the space between said means and said wall being unobstructed. and at least that portion of the wall with which the chicks can come in contact being of uninsulatcd sheet metal and being devoid of sharp angles.

6. A broodcr house for brooding a large number of chicks, comprising a heating means and a w ll spaced from said means, the space between the wall and said means providing a brooding area for the chicks, and a sufficient amount of said wall being of uninsulatcd sheet metal to prevent the chicks from iling up.

7. A broo er house for brooding a large number of chicks, comprising a heating means in the house, a hover over the heating means, and having walls consisting substantially, except for windows. of uninsulated sheet metal.

8. A house for small chicks, said house being large enough to be entered by an attendant and having a floor, sidewalls, a roof, a hover over and adjacent to a portion of the floor and leaving a space thereunder accessible to small chicks rom surrounding portions of the floor, and a heater for the space beneath said hover, there being a ventilating opening in the roof above the hover and windows in the walls, and the walls consisting substantially, except for windows, of uninsulated sheet metal.

9. A house comprising a floor. means to heat a centrally located space adjacent the floor. a rootprovided with a ventilating opening above the heating means, and side walls provided on their inner faces with a series of horizontally running grooves.

10. A house 'eomprisin; a floor, means to heatwa centrally located space adjacent the floor, a roof slanting upward to a ventilating opening over said heating means,.

and sidewalls having their greater portion formed of corrugated sheet metal with the corrugations running horizontally.

11. A house for small animals comprising a floor, means for heating a centrally located space adjacent the floor, a eonicnl roof slanting upward to a central ventilating opening t,

LIZZIE H. DICKELMAN.

CERTIFICATE OF coaaacnoa.

Patent No. l, 670, 932

Granted May 2 2, 1928, to

LIZZIE Hi DICKELMAN.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction as follows:

"insulated" read "uninsulated";

l, for the word should be read with this correction Page 4, line 57, claim and that said Letters Patent therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in thcPatent Office.

Signed and sealed this 7th day of August, A. D. 1928.

.M. J. Moore, Acting Commissioner of Patents.

hover and windows in the walls, and the walls consisting substantially, except for windows, of uninsulated sheet metal.

9. A house comprising a floor. means to heat a centrally located space adjacent the floor. a rootprovided with a ventilating opening above the heating means, and side walls provided on their inner faces with a series of horizontally running grooves.

10. A house 'eomprisin; a floor, means to heatwa centrally located space adjacent the floor, a roof slanting upward to a ventilating opening over said heating means,.

and sidewalls having their greater portion formed of corrugated sheet metal with the corrugations running horizontally.

11. A house for small animals comprising a floor, means for heating a centrally located space adjacent the floor, a eonicnl roof slanting upward to a central ventilating opening t,

LIZZIE H. DICKELMAN.

CERTIFICATE OF coaaacnoa.

Patent No. l, 670, 932

Granted May 2 2, 1928, to

LIZZIE Hi DICKELMAN.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction as follows:

"insulated" read "uninsulated";

l, for the word should be read with this correction Page 4, line 57, claim and that said Letters Patent therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in thcPatent Office.

Signed and sealed this 7th day of August, A. D. 1928.

.M. J. Moore, Acting Commissioner of Patents. 

